The word “genius” in German has a special overtone, even a tinge of the demonic, a mysterious power and energy; a genius—whether artist or scientist—is considered to have a special vulnerability, a precariousness, a life of constant risk and often close to troubled turmoil. – Fritz Stern

Sonderweg: “special path,” a German equivalent of “American Exceptionalism.”

Innerlichkeit: inwardness, it manifests the inwardly-looking structures of the mind; consider also the symphony, which is (usually) wordless and beyond words.

Bildung: self-cultivation and the desire to “enlarge” ourselves and those around us.

Innerlichkeit and Bildung both are German tendencies which have been explicitly named and praised as virtues over many centuries.

by Dan Wang